Over the past 17 days, I've had a wonderful opportunity to visit a part of the USA I'd never experienced before. My wife and I and another couple headed west from Lancaster, Pa. on July 13 on Amtrak's "Pennsylvanian." We changed to the "Capitol Limited" at Pittsburgh, and finally to the "California Zephyr" at Chicago. Our arrival in Denver, Colo. on July 15 was the actual beginning of our adventure.

While our wives toured the Denver state capital building and other sites in the city, my long-time friend Bill and I picked up our rental car and headed out to the Colorado Railroad Museum, where WW&F member and Colorado resident Ira Schreiber met us (we almost didn't recognize him in his bus driver uniform without his battered derby) and conducted a tour of the 13-acre campus, including the shop and roundhouse. We also took a ride in one of the museum's Rio Grande Southern "Galloping Goose" railcars. Since the ride is a loop and is fairly short, each run makes three circuits of the loop.

The next day we (with our wives this time) drove west of Denver about 50 miles to visit the Georgetown Loop Railroad. The Loop line is about 3 miles long and features a towering steel bridge that crosses over its own track (that's the loop part) and Clear Creek. Originally built to haul silver from the mountains, the line was scrapped in 1938, and this section was rebuilt in the late 1960's. Our power was No. 9, a big three-truck Shay, helped along by No. 1203, a rare H.K. Porter diesel recently rebuilt with an Alco 251-model diesel engine. Both engines get a pretty good workout (the Porter smoked more than the steam engine!) hauling a nine-car train up the four percent grade and around sharp curves between Georgetown and the end of the line at Silver Plume. (Note that I'm wearing my WW&F long-sleeve T-shirt -- glad I had it since it was about 48 degrees.)

The bonus for us was on July 18, when we got a chance to escape again while our wives did laundry in Rapid City, S.D. We drove over to Hill City, about 20 miles away, to check out the standard gauge Black Hills Central, which features the only Mallet compound running in the country today. No. 110 is a 2-6-6-2 that puts on quite a show as it clomps up a couple of miles of four percent grade leaving Hill City for Keystone.

All this steam was an extra treat on this trip, which was actually a tour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, Devils Towner National Monument and a number of historic sites in Wyoming and South Dakota.

That sounds like it was a great trip, Wayne, and it's nice that you were able to meet up with Ira.

I've considered trying the "Pennsylvanian" --> "Capitol Limited" combination myself but have been wary of the midnight connection in Pittsburgh so I've never done it. Was it at least still daylight when you went around Horseshoe Curve?

The westbound "Pennsylvanian" rounds Horseshoe Curve shortly after 5 p.m., so during the summer it is still daylight. The eastbound counterpart passes just before 10 a.m., so there's daylight year round.

Annie and I landed yesterday morning in Delhi and have spent the last two days exploring Delhi, which is an amazing mix of very new, very old and absolutely everything in between all at one time.

The Delhi metro, which is now well over 100km and growing (it will essentially double in size in the next several years) has all been constructed since 2002. The city is justifiably proud of their metro and it is kept very clean and is well used by the population. It would not be an understatement to say that it is one of the world's great metro systems in comparison to the London Underground. Today, on the way back from a musical performance I noticed a sign for the Delhi Metro museum (open until 11pm as it is in one of the station entrance halls). Although we were tired from a long day including a visit to the 16th century Red Fort (basically a complete walled city within Delhi- absolutely amazing) Annie indulged me and we got off to see the museum. It was very well put together and included many models of equipment and information on building the metro and it's importance. It was interesting to note that the Delhi Metro has both Broad Gauge and standard gauge lines.On the way back from the nearest Metro station to our hostel we have to take a flyover across the New Delhi railway station platforms. There are three main railway stations in Delhi- this one has approximately 20 tracks/platforms. I noted no less that 8 trains in the station preparing to depart when we went through at 10pm. To give a sense of the railway in India- Indian Railways is one of the largest employers in the world. They publish a timetable called 'Trains at a Glance' which covers mail and express trains (not regular passenger trains or slip-coach trains and only the most important stations) and that alone is nearly 400 pages. Notably absent are timetables for meter gauge and 2ft gauge services. Tomorrow we take our first trip on Indian railways going to Agra in unairconditioned sleeper class- this should be an experience. Just so you don't think the Indian railways are completely 'stuck in the past', the trains are pulled either by diesel or electric, no steam for the most part- although there is some, and the railway hosts an excellent mobile based app for reservations, timetables, and status all which upstages anything I've ever seen from Amtrak. I'm sure there will be more to this adventure, so I'll keep you all posted as much as possible.

Good for you. It took me three tries, each on a different day to climb Katahdin. The first two days we had to turn back due to rain, fog, wind and generally terrible conditions. Of course, I went up the AT from Katahdin Stream Campground. It still is a long arduous climb with just great views if the weather was clear, which it was on our third try.

I was 61 when I finally made it to the top. I had tried each of the two previous years during my summer hiking trips.

It was on my summer hiking trips that discovered the WW&F. Turns out that narrow gauge railroading is more rewarding than hiking. Although some RR projects are harder than climbing mountains the work weekend food and comradeship is a lot better.